Genesis Chapter 16 (NIV)
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Hagar and IshmaelNow Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar;
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so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.”Abram agreed to what Sarai said.
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So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.
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He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.
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Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.”
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“Your servant is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.
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The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.
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And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.
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Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.”
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The angel added, “I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count.”
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The angel of the Lord also said to her:“You are now with childand you will have a son.You shall name him Ishmael,for the Lord has heard of your misery.
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He will be a wild donkey of a man;his hand will be against everyoneand everyone’s hand against him,and he will live in hostilitytoward all his brothers.”
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She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.”
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That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.
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So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.
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Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.
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